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Title Sequence Creation
The title sequence for Westworld is a finely crafted piece of work that draws together experts from quite a few specialities (Much of the information on this page came from http://www.artofthetitle.com and, in particular, from their excellent article.http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/westworld/) People The Design Studio http://elastic.tv/ The production studio who won the contract to produce the title sequence, elastic, have an impressive pedigree, their work includes titles for: The Crown, Amanda Knox, Marvel’s Luke Cage, The Night Manager, The Leftovers (Season 2), True Detective (Season 2), Marvel’s Daredevil, 87th Academy Awards, The Man in the High Castle, Halt and Catch Fire, True Detective, Masters of Sex, The Americans, Game of Thrones, Deadwood, Carnivàle For the Westworld prohject, the team grew and shrank as needed during the project, but the core members were: File:Patrick Clair.JPG|Patrick Clair, Creative Director File:Paul Kim.JPG|Paul Kim, Designer File:Raoul Marks.JPG|Raoul Marks, Lead Animator The design process was quite a long one. It started in February and finished in October, a few days before Westworld went on air. Westworld Production File:Ramin.JPG|Ramin Djawadi, Composer and Arranger File:Ww joy nolan.jpg|Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan, Showrunners elastic worked closely with the composer Ramin Djawadi and the showrunners, Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan. They had just finished the titles for True Detective when Clair read an interview with Jonah and Lisa (Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan, Westworld Showrunners) on one of the TV rumour sites about Westworld. Clair was looking for the next project and asked Jennifer Sofio Hall, a Managing Partner at Elastic, get them the work - and she delivered. Djawadi, Joy & Nolan all invested time in the relationship with elastic. Clair also acknowledges the inspiration of Bjork's video for the song All is Full of Love, which was directed by Chris Cunningham. Design Boards The design boards produced by elastic provided talking points, jumping off points, in the discussions with Joy and Nolan. At least some of these pictures were reused from previous projects. The styleframes. File:Ww designboards 01.jpg File:Ww designboards 02.jpg File:Ww designboards 03.jpg File:Ww designboards 04.jpg File:Ww designboards 05.jpg File:Ww designboards 06.jpg File:Ww designboards 07.jpg File:Ww designboards 08.jpg File:Ww designboards 09.jpg File:Ww designboards 10.jpg File:Ww designboards 11.jpg File:Ww designboards 12.jpg File:Ww designboards 13.jpg File:Ww designboards 14.jpg File:Ww designboards 15.jpg File:Ww designboards 16.jpg File:Ww designboards 17.jpg File:Ww designboards 18.jpg File:Ww designboards 19.jpg File:Ww designboards 20.jpg File:Ww designboards 21.jpg File:Ww designboards 23.jpg File:Ww designboards 24.jpg File:Ww designboards 25.jpg File:Ww designboards 26.jpg File:Ww designboards 27.jpg File:Ww designboards 28.jpg File:Ww designboards 29.jpg File:Ww designboards 30.jpg|some very striking images, such as this one, don't make it any further File:Ww designboards 31.jpg File:Ww designboards 32.jpg File:Ww designboards 33.jpg File:Ww designboards 34.jpg File:Ww designboards 35.jpg File:Ww designboards 36.jpg File:Ww designboards 37.jpg File:Ww designboards 38.jpg File:Ww designboards 40.jpg File:Ww designboards 42.jpg File:Ww designboards 39.jpg|x File:Ww designboards 41.jpg|x File:Ww designboards 43.jpg|x File:Ww designboards 45.jpg|x File:Ww designboards 44.jpg File:Ww designboards 46.jpg File:Ww designboards 47.jpg File:Ww designboards 48.jpg Reference Pictures The reference pictures seem to be the next step in the process, specific images that came out of the Design Board process. The look and feel references. File:Ww reference 01.jpg File:Ww robotlover 01.jpg|Some of these images make their way into the final sequence File:Ww reference 02.jpg|others, just as striking, don't get any further File:Ww reference 03.jpg File:Ww reference 04.jpg File:Ww reference 05.jpg|There are some very "finished" images here File:Ww reference 06.jpg File:Ww reference 07.jpg|The two images with the milky fluid File:Ww reference 09.jpg|feel very familar File:Ww reference 10.jpg File:Ww reference 11.jpg File:Ww reference 12.jpg File:Ww arm.jpg File:Ww vitruvianman 01-0-1280-0-1024.jpg|The Vitruvian man is almost a tradement of WW Storyboards An iteration of the storyboard process, how the title sequence might have looked. File:Ww storyboards 01.jpg|Storyboard 1, the tendons of the horse and the crafting of the rider's eye. File:Ww storyboards 02.jpg|Storyboard 2, the skeletal hands (digitised from video Ramin Djawadi playing) and the piano that plays itself File:Ww storyboards 03.jpg|Storyboard 3, the robot lovers, still being created The Cowgirl We start to see some images that appear in the final title sequence. One of the most commonly asked questions is - who's the girl on the horse? From the frontal view we have here, it doesn't appera to be any of the actresses is the main production. If it's based on anyone, it may be someone at elastic, or a actor employed by them. It possibly could be Armistice. It's a female with long blonde hair, but there's no snake tattoo on the right side of her face. Maybe an earlier version of the host, before she got the role of Armistice? File:Ww cowgirl 01.jpg|the finished rider, missing only her horse File:Ww cowgirlhead 01.jpg|sans hat File:Ww cowgirlhead 02.jpg|with hat, but without 1/2 her skin File:Ww eye 01.jpg|the eye, that is seen being "printed" The Player Piano elastic spent a day photographing the player piano in the production office, and then created digital versions of it that are used in the show - as well as in the title sequence. File:Ww pianostill 01.jpg File:Ww pianostill 02.jpg File:Ww pianostill 03.jpg File:Ww pianostill 04.jpg File:Ww playerpiano 02.jpg Versions Here's the Season 2 version of the opening credits. It uses the same theme as the Season 1 version (has the same music and continues to show partially printed hosts/items), but with a number of the elements changed: Here's a comparison video showing the two versions side-by-side: References Category:Behind the scenes Category:Op-Ed Pieces